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Logitech Touch Mouse M600 review
Jason Tsay
You’re probably wondering two things right now - why is that Magic Mouse black and why is there a Logitech logo printed on it? Well, that’d be because it’s not a Magic Mouse at all. What you’re looking at is the Touch Mouse M600, Logitech’s answer to Apple’s multitouch mouse. How does it perform on the Windows PC?
Features
- Responsive touch surface: Click, scroll and swipe by touch for more natural mouse control
- Silky-smooth scrolling: Slide your finger along the touch surface for immediate, fluid web page and document scrolling
- Comfortable, stylish design: Feels and looks good wherever you use your laptop
- Multi-device wireless receiver: Tiny Logitech Unifying receiver connects up to six compatible mice and keyboards
Our Impressions
Inside the box you get the mouse, Unifying receiver, a soft carrying pouch, the battery door, two Duracell AA batteries, and some manuals.
The Touch Mouse M600 is definitely not one of the nicest Logitech mice we’ve seen in terms of build quality. While the mouse certainly feels durable, it’s also really plastic-y, making it feel cheap. We’re also not a huge fan of the silver weave pattern around the border of the mouse. The entire mouse is made of glossy plastic so it picks up fingerprint and scuffs like crazy.
We wish Logitech would’ve applied an oleophobic coating on the touch surface to keep it from picking up as many fingerprints. A textured or matte, perhaps even glass, surface would have been a much better option both for appearance and feel. The plastic seems to have some sort of very small texture for smoother tracking but we found that the Magic Mouse’s polycarbonate surface still felt smoother to the touch. The shape and curve of the M600 make it just a tad more comfortable to hold than the almost completely flat Magic Mouse.
On the bottom of the mouse is a design very similar to that of the Magic Mouse. Glide pads are situated at the top and bottom of the base among a laser, power switch, LED indicator, and battery door. Inside the battery door is space for two AA batteries, which are included. You can use one at a time if you choose to do so. Next to the batteries is a tiny slot to store the Unifying receiver we’ve come to know and love.
So how does the Touch Mouse perform? Pretty well considering it’s made for Windows. So what exactly can you do with the M600? First of all, there are no “multitouch gestures.” You can have more than one finger on the mouse at a time but all gestures use only one finger. Any part of the mouse that is black can track your finger for clicking, swiping, and scrolling. You can left and right click by placing your finger on the respective side of the mouse. If you right click, you’re going to have to lift the finger on the left side of the mouse, or else it’ll just register as a normal click.
Speaking of click, the click feedback on the M600 isn’t the best feeling in the world. Rather than a crisp high pitched rapid click, you get a sort of dull and slow click, the feel is tactile enough but it is feels slow for some reason. Perhaps it’s because the entire mouse clamps down when you click: the clicking mecanism is only in the base of the mouse (not the grey trim at the bottom but the flat black base). This can be rather annoying because you can hear the mouse rattle when you move it around and the slightest amount of pressure causes the top shell to depress half way.
Besides clicking you can scroll by dragging. Logitech doesn’t offer the option for inverted scrolling at this point so it’s just like a traditional scroll wheel rather than like your iPhone. The experience is pretty seamless and works well with the curved surface of the mouse (protip - turning on smooth scrolling and setting the scroll increment to 1 line allows for the most pleasurable scrolling experience). Swipes to the left and right act as forwards and backwards, just as the side buttons on a mouse would function. SetPoint, Logitech’s desktop software, doesn’t allow you to add any custom gestures of your own or even tweak the ones that are there so that is a bit of a bummer.
Overall
Overall, we believe the Touch Mouse M600 is a much better offering than the Logitech Wireless Touchpad we took a look at a while ago. The few gestures that are there work well although there is simply no option for customization. The M600 hardware isn’t very desirable, especially since we know what Logitech is capable of. If you’re looking for a touch mouse to use with your Windows PC, we’d say the M600 is a good option but we don’t highly recommended it until Logitech puts out an update to the software. As with anything associated with “touch,” the main issue is the software rather than the hardware.
Pro’s
- works smoothly
Con’s
- feels cheap
- no gesture options
Where to buy
Logitech / Amazon — MSRP: $69.99
This review was done by Jason Tsay, who was provided the Touch Mouse M600 by Logitech.
